Library Services for People Experiencing Homelessness

Adams, C., & Krtalić, M. (2021). I feel at home: Perspectives of homeless library customers on public library services and social inclusion.  Journal of Librarianship and Information Science , 09610006211053045. This article raises an interesting point about that validity and level of acceptance and welcome experienced by library users may have a relationship to the activity they are undertaking while in the library. The participants in their study stated that sometimes they feel unwelcome in a public library if they are not reading. They are asked to move on if they are sleeping or not sitting in a chair.  " while Participant 7 was generally satisfied with library staff and services, he also explained that he sometimes felt discriminated against when staff questioned why he was sitting or lying on the floor instead of using a chair:  It seems like they pick and choose which ones to ask, you know what I mean? Yeah. If you’re not sitting there with a book, then, yeah (...

 On February 17, I spent a second day with the staff of Yarra Libraries and their outreach service. This time we were set up outside the injecting rooms at the Richmond higy-rise flats. As before we were sharing the space with other community service providers: OrangeSky was there with their laundry van again, and they also had a shower bus with them this time. There was also a presence from Ask Issy  which is a service that runs through mobile phones and connects people to services. The Ask Issy people were spruiking their site and were giving away phone charging banks.  It was very quiet, but all the staff from each of the services were saying that this quietness was really unusual and nothing like what had been the case before COVID. These days out in the community were the first in a long time since lockdowns had lifted. They suggested that the numbers would rise as they became more visible in the community and as word got around that the services were back in operati...

    Wahler EA, Provence MA, Helling J, Williams MA. The Changing Role of Libraries: How Social Workers Can Help. Families in Society. 2020;101(1):34-43. doi: 10.1177/1044389419850707 This is an interesting study of social workers in libraries. It studies: How library staff think about theor roles as supporters of the psychosocial eneds of patrons What they believe are the library's responsibilities in this area  What are some program and policy recommendations for other libraries.  It provides a good lit review including some references to writers who state quite strongly that there is no place in libraries for supporting the psychosocial needs of users - that this is not the job of libraries at all. In particular a published 'commentary' by Ken Bikoff from Indiana University Bloomington who was of the strong belief that there was no role at all for libraries in moving beyond libraries as "a place in which literary, musical, artistics, or reference materials are kept...